Port Kembla arrived at Crehan Park with a much changed line-up for their first outing of the season, featuring two guest players and ex-Wolves recruit Ben Zucco, whilst the Lions featured three guests of their own - so how much can be looked into this fixture is up to interpretation. Regardless of that, both sides were playing a brand of football of a significantly higher quality than either side could consistently produce last season.

Port Kembla spent vast portions of the game in cruise-mode, however were unable to find the opening goal until after half-time. Cringila seemed content to play on the counter and back the pace of their frontline and the hold-up play of Takao Teramoto.

Play was mostly down the Cringila end of the park, Kyle Hazebroak-Southgate unlucky not to reach a searching cross early on and Kody Maude drawing a fine near-post save from Alex Boullosa after a fast break. The best chance of the first half for Port fell to Joey Lavalle, who had a free header at the near post from a long throw-in, however he was only able to find the gloves of Boullosa centrally.

Down the other end, Port were assured in defence, with Brooklan Frkovic marshalling his troops around to dispel any danger, whilst also being the architect of forward pushes from defence whilst in possession himself.

It was however two defensive lapses from Port which nearly threw the game into Cringila's arms. First, a well-offside Teramoto was almost played on by a back-pass to his grateful feet, however an air-swing from the defender rendered him still offside, and the flaired back-heel shot trickled wide regardless.

Four minutes later, the only misread by Frkovic saw Jacob Martin running directly at Daniel Farina in goal, only to be shut down by the last-moment slide by Matt Werakso covering across.

Port could've entered the halftime break ahead from the last passage of play - Sandy Lowcock dribbling down the left wing, cutting inside and beating two players for his near-post shot to draw a fine save down low from Boullosa.

With scores level at the interval, Port continued after the break in the same fashion - Lavalle ripped a powerful volley from a bouncing ball 25 yards out which went over the crossbar. Port Kembla remained content with playing possession football and passing around the edge of the Cringila box as the Lions backed off and afforded the visitors plenty of room to play with, instead keeping a tight unit inside their own box.

Midway through the half, Port finally got their rewarding goal to pay off their patience. Maude beat a touch-and-go offside call and was released into acres of space down the right wing, entering the box and squaring the ball for Lowcock to score a regulation tap-in from 10 yards into an empty net.

Maude was the thorn in Cringila's side all evening with his pace and intelligent runs, and nearly created the second for Port with some neat one-touch passing in the box, which saw Doug Woodiwiss slide his shot wide from 15 yards.

The rest of the game was played out in midfield, with few chances for either side. Cameron Hanson had the last chance of the game with only a few minutes remaining, slapping a loose ball through traffic from 20 yards, only to find the gloves of Farina in the middle of goal.

Port finished with the deserved 1-0 win, which will be encouraging for the patience it required to grind out the victory, meanwhile Cringila should hold their heads high on a solid performance against quality opposition, only to be beaten by a single lapse at the back.

 

Friday 17th February - Crehan Park

Referee - N. Ryan

Assistants - D. Jordan, D. Dennelly

 

Cringila Lions 0

Port Kembla 1 - Lowcock 48'

 

Cringila Lions - A. Boullosa, N. Macgraw, M. Stojanoski, D. Ramirez, J. Sherwen, R. Lewin, T. Tupanceski, T. Sparks, T. Teramoto, A. Brbevski, I. Cesay

Subs - N. Purdevski, J. Martin, D. Trpevski, C. Hanson

 

Port Kembla - D. Farina, B. McGinn, M. Werakso, B. Frkovic, W. Mobbs, M. Scazzariello, K. Maude, B. Zucco, S. Lowcock, J. Lavalle, K. Hazebroak-Southgate

Subs - J. Potter, J. Cario, J. Ivanovic, D. Woodiwiss, B. Jardine

 

Note: Unlimited interchanges in pre-season games.

Report by David Atherton - @daveatho5

Photo: Pedro Garcia (Library Archive)